August 31, 2012

I try to get out to Village Farms to see Dirk whenever I can, and when we came out this time with a camera crew, I was joking with Dirk about how I’d been telling people this was the biggest greenhouse in BC, or maybe even North America, and he laughed and said “no way man, I’m pretty sure we’re the biggest greenhouse under one roof in the world…”
And he was serious. In fact, ... Read More …

I have a lot of zucchini. Too much even to give away, though I try.
If you have accidentally grown a lot of this stuff, been given large amounts of it by a “friend” or just like ratatouille you are in luck.
My ratatouille recipe does NOT include eggplant because my wife doesn’t like it and chances are good you aren’t growing it. You won’t miss it.
This is my riff on the French classic, ... Read More …

By Powder Matt
Safari, British Columbia style! As we leave the heat of summer on the British Columbia side of the Canadian Rockies, and Fall starts to make its arrival, there is no better time to see some of the world’s great animals in action, right here in the Canadian Rockies.
The fan favorite, Grizzly Bear, comes down from their high alpine basins to forage in the lower basins and river bottom. Some potential places ... Read More …

A new local initiative, The Tiffin Project, takes something old and gives it new meaning.
Tiffins are metal food containers which have been used as lunch boxes since the late 1800s in India. Wives cook lunches for their husbands and dabbawallas (‘one who carries a box’) deliver them to their work.
Vancouver’s Tiffin Project won’t require dabbawallas; the mission is to reduce take-out container waste from restaurants and to help restaurateurs buy local farm produce ... Read More …

In restaurant time, 12 years is like a dog’s life — a lot of restaurants have keeled over, dead, by that age.
That’s how many years ago I first visited Blue Eyed Marys. A lot has changed in that time. When I went, it was on Bowen Island, sharing a funky space in a cute little house. By day, was Breakfast Cafe and by evening, it morphed into candlelit Blue Eyed Marys. Then they moved ... Read More …

A last minute notice just dropped on my desk about a pretty cool documentary airing on CBC TV this weekend (in B.C. only) entitled Cue The Muse.
The one-hour doc, directed by Jodie Martinson and Greg Masuda, will take a look at the creative processes of four Vancouver-based artists including blues-rock band No Sinner‘s fiery singer Colleen Rennison, acclaimed painter Tiko Kerr, Ballet BC dancer Alexis Fletcher and luthier Nicole ... Read More …

The first Vancouver Diner en Blanc did not disappoint. All 1,200 flashmobsters, out of 5,000 that wanted in, were in ghostly white and thoroughly into the event last Thursday evening.
They were stoked to go but some complained about the Soup-Nazi style rules that were part of it. One fellow I talked to was particularly obedient about the all-white dress code and made sure he wore white underwear. Another couple scored extra points, bringing their ... Read More …

Omar Salgado can finally see the end to what will be a three-month long detour in his young soccer career.
The promising 18-year-old striker is back at Vancouver Whitecaps training, working on raising his fitness level in an effort to make his return to reserves squad action against the San Jose Earthquakes on Sept. 10, after sitting out the entire summer with a fractured right foot he suffered at the beginning of June while playing ... Read More …

Last Sunday, the extent of sea ice in the Arctic reached its lowest point since such things have been tracked. This is the second of a series of posts looking at the science and the significance of this decline. Today, we’re asking what the “lowest extent of Arctic sea ice” really means.
Here’s the context
Since the late 1970s, the scientific community has used satellites to measure the extent of sea ice covering the Arctic ... Read More …

Good Morning! Happy Friday!
We are just loving the flood of bathrooms that are awash with personality! Gone are the days when washrooms were purely utilitarian; colour, wallpaper, art, vanity nooks, nothing is off limits. Here are a few of of favourite bathrooms with personality! Enjoy!
Have a 10/10 Weekend!
-AR... Read More …

It’s going to be a busy weekend, with everybody getting ready to start a new school year. Why not take a break from all the back-to-school shopping and enjoy a day at TaiwanFest, Burnaby Village Museum’s Fall Fair, or listening to blues in White Rock? Or take a road trip to Fort Langley to check out the Fort Farm Fest, or the Old & New Day at the BC Farm Museum. You can see the ... Read More …

A new study shows B.C.’s labour market performance held fairly strong during the 2008 recession and its aftermath, but that doesn’t mean there’s no interest in reform.
And with political parties at opposite ends of the political spectrum vying for support in next spring’s provincial election, those reforms could — depending who wins — go in either direction, I observe in my Vancouver Sun column (accessible here).
Aside from tinkering with the minimum ... Read More …

Sviatoslav Shevchuk first visited Vancouver 15 years ago as a fresh young priest on an adventure, driving here with friends from San Francisco.
This week he makes a return visit as His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, revered patriarch of the world’s four million Ukrainian Catholics.
“I remember admiring the fireworks,” the patriarch said of an evening he spent on English Bay in the summer of 1997.
On Saturday, he is to lead a morning service and ... Read More …

If you are a tomato lover then you know to look forward to this time of the year, when tomatoes taste sweet, juicy and meaty. If you live in Vancouver and have tomato plants your tomatoes are ripening as we speak.
I must admit, I am a tomato lover. I look forward to this time every year, and when tomato season starts I try to make the most of it. In the past years I ... Read More …